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Teaching Examples

Introductory Examples

The Regional Climate Change Viewer (RCCV) allows a user to view, download, and manipulate climate model data for a region of interest over a given time period. The application was designed with all user levels in mind, and can be used to provide a basic assessment of climate given just the tools on the website, or a more complex analysis using downloaded data for multiple climate models, multiple variables, and over several time periods.

This tutorial will provide a guide to using the RCCV to understand how the climate will change in “your county”. You will learn how to: 1) view the data in which you are interested, 2) interpret the data and trends, and 3) compare those data between models and with other time periods. The tutorial is broken into three sections, given your experience level and your intended use of the data. The data used in the RCCV application should be considered an estimate and should not be used in research, planning, or policy documents (see the FAQ).

The Regional Climate Downloader (RCD) applications allows users to download raw climate model data for a region of interest over a given time period. The application is intended for advanced users who are interested in viewing, downloading and analyzing climate model data. This tutorial will provide a guide to using the RCD application to 1) download ~130 years of monthly temperature data for multiple models, create an annual average from the monthly data, and plot the time series, 2) bias correct the time series to account for a model cold bias.

Climatology 401 – Download ~130 years of climate data time series for the area surrounding Riverside, CA, calculate annual average temperature from monthly data and plot. (This example uses IDL programming language to manipulate and plot the climate data. Although the code is specific to IDL, the general process should be universal to other analysis packages. Prior programming knowledge is recommended)

Climatology 501 – Bias correct the MPI ECHAM5, USGS GENMOM, and GFDL CM2.0 temperature time series for Riverside, CA using the NOAA NCEP 1980-1999 climatology. This sample build off the Climatology 401 example, so users should be comfortable with that material before proceeding to this sample. (This example uses IDL programming language to manipulate and plot the climate data. Although the code is specific to IDL, the general process should be universal to other analysis packages. Prior programming knowledge is recommended)